Seconds after the judges had delivered their decision at the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Wednesday, Slobodan Praljak shouted out angrily: “Praljak is not a criminal. I reject your verdict.”

The 72-year-old then raised a small brown bottle to his lips, and drank it in full view of the cameras filming the hearing. “I just drank poison,” he said. “I am not a war criminal. I oppose this conviction.”

I remember his name from my time in Bosnia. I was in an historically Serb held region that had been taken over by Croats. He was by far not the worst name I had heard. He was perhaps most guilty of not being able to control those who worked for him. From my recollections, he was not evil like some of the others.

I still am torn by my time in the region. It was my first deployment and I still feel like I was in a region with no good guys. However, I do think experiences I had there set me up for success on three tours to Afghanistan and two to the Levant.

UEL, I was in Bosnia in '96 (as a tourist) and I left thinking that there was no real GOOD side, just the various sides that had killed and displaced a LOT of their neighbors, and the sides that had killed and displaced fewer of their neighbors. It was a huge mess, and I am amazed that the area has worked as well as it has. At the time, I thought that the fighting would be back soon, after talking to people who just wanted revenge, ONE more strike, "justice by killing a lot of them", or the equivalent.